Picture the scene… it’s a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. The roads are full of hire cars misunderstanding the filter system and commuters are getting cross about the lack of parking in town. The beaches are packed with children enjoying the summer holidays, parents hurrying for sun cream and avoiding constant demands for ice creams. Right now, it seems a long way off, but before we know it things will return to some level of normality. What kind of normality we return to obviously remains to be seen.
How will this experience have changed us all, I wonder? Well in my own case I would love to say it will have made me a better person, more grateful and compassionate. Unfortunately, once the attraction of live sport and the gravitational pull of the golf course returns, I will most likely be back to my normal self! On a serious note though, things are going to change; not a “new normal” that is far too clichéd, but we will all be different.
Behaviour
From a marketing point of view, it is imperative that we consider the changes in customer behaviour. In Guernsey there has been a seismic shift in how we have shopped and consumed during lockdown. Visiting restaurants or jumping in the car to pick up a takeaway or go the shops, has been the Guernsey way. We have avoided the convenience delivery models familiar in large cities like London and Dubai (think Deliveroo and Uber Eats). But “post-corona” that’s likely to change. While there’ll always be demand for great service and atmosphere, consumers have experienced first-hand a new approach and local businesses will need to show agility to adapt.
Business
Could this meeting have been an email? This was one of the first lessons I was ever taught and somewhere along the way I forgot it. Meeting after meeting after meeting; it was like it somehow justified my salary. Post corona-gate we will all have been taught two very valuable lessons – time is valuable and technology is available to allow us to be more flexible and agile in how we work.
I am not saying that we will never return to normal office life, or that you will never sit in a two-hour meeting in which nothing was achieved except learning “how everyone’s weekend was”. I do think that working life will change and that companies both big and small will embrace a more flexible way of working and embrace technology more and more.
Budgets
Ah money, it had to come up somewhere didn’t it? Will we have any? If we do, what should we spend it on? The answer to the first question is unknown but what I do know is that when it comes to spending money, we will be more careful. Marketing budgets will be assessed and considered more carefully, and companies both large and small will be forced to focus on return on investment (ROI), rather than perceived value. Luckily (for Clicksmith), digital marketing allows our clients to understand ROI using data and facts. As well as the data, digital marketing offers significant exposure for relatively low costs. Based on the fact our behaviours are going to change and our use of technology is likely to evolve, there has never been a better time to build you digital marketing strategy.
This will get better and how we react when it does will define the future of our businesses. Until then let’s stay safe and keep dreaming of fish and chips on the beach.
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